Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute and Caterpillar Inc. to automate large off-highway haul trucks

Description

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute are working with colleagues at Caterpillar Inc. to develop autonomous versions of large haul trucks used in mining operations.The Robotics Institute will be adapting more than a decade's worth of its research into self-driving vehicles for use with Caterpillar's two largest haul trucks, each with payload capacities of 240 tons or more. This is the first major project resulting from a three-year master agreement for sponsored research signed last year by Carnegie Mellon and Caterpillar, the world's leading manufacturer of construction, mining and other heavy equipment. Researchers at the Robotics Institute's National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) will work closely with Caterpillar's Pittsburgh Automation Center, which opened in September 2007.

Original URL

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/cmu-cmr090908.php

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/cmu-cmr090908.php